More precisely, the invention relates to a system and method to control third item of equipment using a SIM card, via a radiocommunication module. The invention also relates to the corresponding radiocommunication module and third item of equipment.
Conventionally, a radiocommunication system subscriber has a mobile station (sometimes also referred to as a mobile telephone) comprising:                a terminal (or ME, for “Mobile Equipment”), itself comprising a radiocommunication module (or “GSM module”) providing a wireless communication function and controlling various hardware components (screen, keyboard, speaker, etc.);        cooperating with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card.        
Optionally, a set of commands and procedures referred to as the “SIM Application Toolkit” is provided. It operates as follows: the SIM card sends an SAT (SIM Application Toolkit) command to the terminal, which executes it and then reports to the SIM card on the correct or incorrect execution of the SAT command. For more information, refer to the ETSI standard “GSM 11.14 (Phase 2+), inserted as a reference.
In sum, the SIM Application Toolkit enables the SIM card to control and send commands to the terminal, so as to control certain hardware components (screen, keyboard, speaker, etc.) of the terminal man/machine interface. In this way, the SIM card can particularly control the display on the screen of a menu or a given text, data input on the keyboard by the user, transmission of a short message, playing a tone by the speaker, setting up a call, provision of location information, etc. Therefore, the SIM Application Toolkit can be used to introduce new functions, which opens up a wide range of added value services. Indeed, service providers can develop new applications for subscribers and load them into the SIM cards, without modifying the radiocommunication terminals.
It is important to note that the SIM Application Toolkit functions were only originally devised, and are only currently offered, for a SIM card cooperating with a radiocommunication terminal. There is no provision for the case where the terminal also cooperates with third item of equipment and only serves as a modem.
In addition, other applications have already been envisaged for the above-mentioned radiocommunication module.
It has particularly been proposed to integrate the radiocommunication module into devices other than radiocommunication terminals, but nonetheless requiring a wireless communication function. For example, telemetry (meter readings) devices or credit card reader devices may be mentioned.
It has also been proposed to supply the radiocommunication module in an independent form: it is then considered as a modem. Such a modem does not comprise any man/machine interface hardware components (screen, keyboard, speaker, etc.). It is intended to cooperate with an item of third item of equipment (supporting a client application), which comprises man/machine interface hardware components. The third item of equipment may in particular, but not exclusively, be a PC. As a general rule, it controls the module, generally using a set of AT (ATtention) commands. These commands are originally intended to enable third item of equipment (or TE Terminal Equipment) to request a radiocommunication terminal to which it is connected to execute certain predetermined actions. For more details on these AT commands, refer to the ETSI standard “GSM 07.07” and the ITU-IT recommendation V25ter, inserted as references.
A radiocommunication terminal, or another device as mentioned above, may also be used, exceptionally, as a modem for third item of equipment with which it cooperates. From an operational viewpoint, this consists of the same situation as that discussed above for an actual modem (i.e. when the radiocommunication module is supplied independently).
Unfortunately, the radiocommunication module, irrespective of the envisaged application (terminal, other device, or modem), does not appear to allow the use of the SIM Application Toolkit if said module cooperates with third item of equipment and only behaves as a modem. Indeed, in this case, the man/machine interface hardware components of the third item of equipment are used. The module does not control said man/machine interface hardware components directly and therefore cannot execute the SAT commands sent by the SIM card.
In other words, the state of the art involves the major drawback of not enabling a SIM card to use the SIM Application Toolkit to control third item of equipment, via a radiocommunication module.
The invention particularly aims to make up for this major drawback of the state of the art.
More precisely, one of the aims of the present invention is to provide a system and method to control third item of equipment using a SIM card implementing the SIM Application Toolkit, via a radiocommunication module. In other words, the aim is to open the SIM Application Toolkit functions, originally devised for radiocommunication terminals, to third item of equipment.
The invention also aims to provide such a system and method, which require no modification in the SIM card.
Another aim of the invention is to provide such a system and method, which are adapted to the different types of SIM Application Toolkit dialogue (or dialogue elements) that already exist, or will exist in the future (if new SAT commands are added to current set of SAT commands).